Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) Rating Increased to Hold at DA Davidson

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) was upgraded by investment analysts at DA Davidson to a “hold” rating in a report issued on Tuesday, Zacks.com reports.

Other research analysts have also recently issued reports about the stock. Wolfe Research raised shares of Alphabet to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, July 16th. Rosenblatt Securities cut Alphabet from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $181.00 price target for the company. in a report on Friday, June 28th. Cantor Fitzgerald raised Alphabet to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, September 5th. TD Cowen raised their target price on Alphabet from $200.00 to $220.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 10th. Finally, Oppenheimer upped their price target on shares of Alphabet from $205.00 to $210.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 24th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, six have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $182.86.

Alphabet Stock Performance

Shares of Alphabet stock opened at $152.15 on Tuesday. The stock has a market capitalization of $1.87 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 23.34, a PEG ratio of 1.13 and a beta of 1.04. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $170.36 and its 200-day simple moving average is $165.90. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04, a current ratio of 2.08 and a quick ratio of 2.08. Alphabet has a 12 month low of $121.46 and a 12 month high of $193.31.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, July 23rd. The information services provider reported $1.89 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.85 by $0.04. Alphabet had a net margin of 26.70% and a return on equity of 30.49%. The business had revenue of $84.74 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $84.22 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $1.44 earnings per share. The business’s revenue was up 13.6% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Alphabet will post 7.63 earnings per share for the current year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 682 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, July 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $183.47, for a total transaction of $125,126.54. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer now owns 30,650 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $5,623,355.50. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. In other news, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 682 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, July 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $183.47, for a total transaction of $125,126.54. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 30,650 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,623,355.50. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 22,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, September 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $158.68, for a total transaction of $3,570,300.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 2,137,385 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $339,160,251.80. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders have sold 201,867 shares of company stock valued at $34,218,581. Insiders own 12.99% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Alphabet

Institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Capital International Investors boosted its stake in Alphabet by 9.3% during the 1st quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 87,716,562 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $13,355,724,000 after purchasing an additional 7,470,042 shares during the period. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted its position in shares of Alphabet by 19.7% during the first quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 84,171,721 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $12,815,986,000 after buying an additional 13,876,534 shares during the period. Capital World Investors grew its holdings in Alphabet by 2.2% in the 1st quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 45,731,826 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $6,963,128,000 after buying an additional 979,083 shares in the last quarter. Capital Research Global Investors increased its position in Alphabet by 2.0% in the 1st quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 35,558,778 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $5,414,179,000 after acquiring an additional 684,968 shares during the period. Finally, Norges Bank bought a new stake in Alphabet during the 4th quarter valued at $4,101,040,000. Institutional investors own 27.26% of the company’s stock.

About Alphabet

Alphabet Inc offers various products and platforms in the United States, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, the Asia-Pacific, Canada, and Latin America. It operates through Google Services, Google Cloud, and Other Bets segments. The Google Services segment provides products and services, including ads, Android, Chrome, devices, Gmail, Google Drive, Google Maps, Google Photos, Google Play, Search, and YouTube.